China: Dynasty Untamed

China's imperial history, often rife with political instability and infighting amongst feudal lords, who vied for political power.  Constant infighting and warring for dominion to establish control, ironically, allowed China to continue establishing imperial rule as an empire.  Up until the late 20th century, China's empire underwent cyclic times of entering a time of war, chaos, rebellion, short term peace, political unrest, division, all which leads back to the fall of the previous dynasty and succession to the next dynasty.

China lasted as an empire from her people.  Ludicrous as it sounds, fighting sustained China's role as an empire for ages.  Not for the self, but for the sustenance of the future mattered to political officials, no matter how selfish or noble the intentions came decided the fate of the imperial realm.  Destruction from an established regional power within the empire, such as another state, indicates that the unity of the rule looms towards fall prior to the age of Qing Dynasty rule.

The cost for maintaining the Chinese empire came at a great price for the people and the rulers of each period.  For example, Qin Dynasty's Qin ShiHuang enacted laws that might perhaps damaged educational purposes.  Qin declared philosophy books from Confucius and others criminal, censored from the public.  Han-rule China corrected this error, allowing Confucian philosophy to be relearned as part of the new way.  Citizenship and isolationism became problematic into the future for the later ages.  The Opium War appropriates this example of China's inability to adapt to the political change in the world.

With all the burden carried of maintaining the dynasties of China came good.  Military innovation from fighting invaders and internal political threats lead to construction to the Great Wall in Qin-China. Han-China saw the use and application of the Civil Service exams.  Law review between those two eras fell under the emperor's province leaders, officials, but not to nobles for many reasons.

   

Although far from perfect, China seems to have identified itself as one of the many contenders, if not, better as an ideal empire.  Despite the hardships that ensued in the time to rebuild the empire, significant insight of looking into the history of some of the turmoil in Chinese history paves an open path of many questions.  Historically, eunuchs have been known to be power hungry.  Plots of rebellion, abdication, usurpation, and overthrow came from eunuchs.  Not all, but a number came from eunuchs.  Due to the constant defeat of said plots, perhaps it might be one of the many reasons that China successfully maintained an empire longer than Rome.  Not to mention the geographical terrain of China determined the way and shape of how to construct the empire.  Could it be that it was more than suppression of rebellion, geography, constant political unrest, and many other factors? Does the foundation of how long the empire lasted rest with how the future of the empire from the minds of those behind it?